autoconf 2.53 breaks compatibility (LIBOBJS)

[Lars Marowsky-Bree]

Hi guys,

I have read the discussion in your documentation and on the mailing lists with
regard to AC_LIBOBJS vs LIBOBJS.

Please let me point out that the autoconf 2.53 behaviour is incompatible and
at least counter-intuitive:

- The documentation only teases about how it really shouldn't be used, and
  that there are so many reasons why it should be done in that other, mucho
  better way which the documentation doesn't give an example for.

- All documentation referring to autoconf and libtool still has the LIBOBJS
  directive, even autoconf itself!

  (Combining the above two I really felt like the docs were taunting me...)
  
- The recommended work-around if LIBOBJS is really needed (ie, if using
  libtool) with using LIB@&address@hidden isn't even backwards compatible to 
2.52, it
  will break slightly older autoconf versions for no good reason.

  This makes the scripts only uglier to read, while still allowing what we
  apparently shouldn't be doing.
  
I see the point in not writing to it and instead using AC_LIBOBJS, but
breaking compatibility in a minor upgrade isn't very nice, especially not for
a tool intended to increase portability :-)

So please, does anyone of you have a suggestion for a portable workaround?
What _is_ the recommended way of doing

Xsed="sed -e s/^X//"
LTLIBOBJS=`echo X"$LIB@&address@hidden"|[$Xsed -e "s,\.[^.]* ,.lo 
,g;s,\.[^.]*$,.lo,"]`
AC_SUBST(LTLIBOBJS)

... Instead of applying a patch to configure.in depending on the autoconf
version?

Thanks for any insights you can provide, and please Cc me directly, as I am
not subscribed to the mailing list.


Sincerely,
    Lars Marowsky-Brée <address@hidden>

-- 
Immortality is an adequate definition of high availability for me.
        --- Gregory F. Pfister